SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This kind of parking devices, in which steel construction parts are extensively used for the rack beams, shelving system and/or rest areas, hoisting appliance, and in the entrance and departure station, can be installed in an independent car park or in a part of a building complex of hotels, office or residential buildings, or can be integrated hospitals, old people's homes and other existing building complexes, since they function without exhaust pollution and with a minimum of noise generation. Moreover the maneuvering, which normally takes place in car parks when parking and retrieving vehicles, disappears particularly if the cars, when prepared for leaving are placed in their departing direction.
A low noise level is achieved by the conveying principle throughout used from an entrance and departure station up to the high storage racks and back, wherein the shiftable lifting table by means of its transport combs takes up a car from the rest combs and by moving through the rest combs of the transition place, deposits it there, while the hoisting appliance by means of the transport combs of its conveying table lifts a car from the transition place and deposits it on the rest combs of an allocated parking box.
The incoming car can activate the opening mechanism of a rolling gate or a barrier at the entrance and departure stations by driving over an induction loop and is then driven on the rest combs to a pre-determined position, in which preferably its front wheels are received in a recess provided by greater prong intervals and/or may be positioned by using sensor and signalling devices such that they can be positionedly taken up in appropriate receiving means or depressions of the transport combs of the shiftable lifting table. This positioning principle which is extended to the transition place, the hoisting appliance conveying table and the rest combs and parking boxes, facilitates a simple and safe handling procedure for moving driverless cars.
Depending on the number of parking boxes available in the parking device and also on the length of the storing racks, several entrance and departure stations with allocated transition places may be provided in the adjacent bay and additionally several hoisting appliances passable in the conveying floor, this for the purpose of effectively reducing the access time. During periods of increased user frequency, for example work start time, the majority of stations can be programmed only as entrance station. Preferably, there are two hoisting appliances along each conveying floor, passable past each other on rails, the conveying table of which having a hoisting platform guided on one or two masts and a telescoping table, rotatable through at least 180.degree. by means of a pivot bearing and telescopingly movable horizontally on or into opposite direction, transport combs being fixed to the sides of upper, farthest extensible telescoping unit. For parking devices having very long conveying floors and several entrance/departure stations, more than one hoisting appliance can be provided on each pair of rails formed by one upper and one lower rail.
The transport combs fixed to the shiftable lifting table and to the hoisting appliance conveying table have, as a result of greater prong intervals, first receiving means for positioning preferably the car front wheels, whilst the rest combs in the parking boxes, the transition place and the entrance/departure stations also have receiving means formed by prongs of smaller intervals fitting between the prongs of the first receiving means or formed by trough sections upwardly open. If required, the receiving means or recesses can be established or removed, respectively, by means of vertically adjustable prongs.
For loading and unloading of bays arranged completely underground, at least one entrance and departure station is provided above ground at entrance level, and having a shiftable lifting table vertically adjustable within a pit, designed to suit the largest car dimensions, between entrance height and a minimum height for then being displaced at a level underneath the transition place, whilst the rest combs of the E/D station are adjustable between a clearing position to open the pit and a closing position partly to cover the pit. By carrying out this proposal, the high storage rack parking system with its advantages as to effecient utilization of space, may be constructed underground, wherein simply one or several E/D stations with roofs or in the form of small garage building remain visible over a green free area at entrance height. The rest combs in the E/D stations to clear the pit either are moved horizontally into the pit side boundaries or folded downwards. The shiftable lifting table with a car standing on it is adjustable to an upper end position located above the entrance level, at which the rest combs can be adjusted freely between their clearing and closing positions.
In providing a simplified parking device, at least one transition place installed in a parking box may be positioned at entrance height and used as an E/D station having both rest combs and rolling gates. This variant is used either exclusively or in combination with a parking device which has at least one other transition place behind a E/D station. Provision can also be made such that only cars placed ready for leaving at a transition place are collected from here by the driver and driven out via a lane continuing up to the rest combs of the entrance and departure station.
According to another simplified embodiment of the inventional parking device, at the height of a passable roof above the conveying floor, at least one E/D station is provided with rest combs being disposed above an opening designed to suit the largest car dimensions and interacting with transport combs of the hoisting appliance telescoping table, which can be moved to a correspondingly aligning or fitting height, while the rest combs can be retracted into the side opening boundaries or folded downwards by means guided drive means.
Further features and advantages of the parking device according to the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments shown in the drawings, which also contain details essential to the invention. These features, including those of the claims may form alternative embodiments of the invention either individually or in any other combination.